>Before the recent audio bug fixes, the audio drivers (apparently) had
>the intent that if the user got "behind" in supplying samples when the
>audio device wanted them, the driver would supply silence and discard
>user data until the user "caught up" to the present time.
>[...]
>This seems like a good time to inquire as to whether the original
>behavior was intended, and also to inquire whether the "catch up
>required" behavior should be a supported output mode.  (I believe the
>current behavior--play all samples--should be a supported output mode.)

Some history is worth mentioning here.

As I recall, the driver we have was originally written for BSDI by
Steve McCanne & friends at LBL for use with Vat.  The reason for the
silence accounting was because this made it {easier|simpler|better}
for vat to deal with the loss of some data.  I guess I can see some
reasons to discard late samples till you caught up to real time (but
I personally think that it should be the job of the userland code,
_not_ the driver.  I think the driver should try to play everything
that was written to the device).

--Ken